After receiving a new debit card the other day, I had to go through the process of updating my card information for the different services I use. Many of them being performed on mobile apps, I figured I would take the opportunity to see what the different experiences were like adding in card information on different applications.

It’s a no brainer that security should be the most important piece for any application that will hold personal information, especially banking credentials. Another important concept with any application is ease of use, including adding in a card. Here are some of the takeaways I got from going through the process of updating my payment info:

There needs to be an option to update the information on the mobile app

This seems like a no brainer, but I was surprised to find there was no way of updating my payment info on Spotfiy’s mobile app. Then when I went onto Spotify’s application on my laptop, again, there was no option for updating the information. I had to go onto their Web Player version and then go into my account from there. If a company has a mobile app and there is payment involved, there needs to be a way to update the information from my mobile device. The masses are using mobile more (especially millennials) and it’s inconvenient and annoying when they are required to leave their phones to pull out their laptops just to update.

It should be easy to find where to update

If there is ever an instance where a customer is confused or lost on a website, then the website is poorly designed. Same thing with mobile apps. The interface for the mobile app should be intuitive and dead easy to use. Users should be able to go into an app and quickly locate whatever they might be looking for without even knowing where it was ahead of time. If there is payment involved, this should always be easy to find and right at our fingertips, literally. I think this should really only be a touch away. Foodler, the food delivery service, has a side menu that has the option for going to your account, and then from account you can go to credit cards. Why isn’t the credit cards option on the first menu? Uber, on the other hand, has its side menu with payment being at the top. This just makes sense because your payment is essential for these apps and should be the easiest thing to find.

Make the inputting of information as easy as possible

Filling in your name, address, card number, expiration date, security code, etc is just tedious and time wasting. Mobile apps that have payment information in them should all be taking advantage of using the camera to scan the card. This just makes the process a lot quicker and makes customers more satisfied. The Android Pay app is one of the best for this process. It scans the card so it gets the card number and expiration filled in. Then all you need to do is enter your security code and your address. The address part is then made a lot easier because once you start entering in the first few digits and letters, it brings up all the possibilities so you don’t need to type the rest. This made everything super quick and should be adopted by other apps that require card info.

Mobile apps are supposed to be a fun and easy experience for users so make sure their is a place to update their payment info, it is easy to find, and the input is effortless.

Alex White

Alex White is a blogger for ZK Research, bringing a millennial's point of view on technology. He is a junior at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts, studying Global Business and Marketing with a passion for new technology. While in school, he interns for TechTarget, a leading technology media company that provides content for the technology industry.